Amidst confusion within commuters and disruptions in local and mail express trains traffic, Central Railway has successfully completed the mammoth task of commissioning of Electronic Interlocking (EI) at CSMT for extension of PF no 10 & 11 and widening of platforms 5 and 6 at Thane station well before the scheduled time.
After the extension of PF no 10 & 11 at CSMT by 385 meters, the length has been increased to 690 meters and can now accommodate passenger trains of 24 coaches. A block of 36 hrs was taken from 00.30 hrs of June 1 to 12.30 hrs of June 2 on the CSMT-Byculla main line and CSMT-Vadala Road harbour line section for carrying out the work, a release from the Central Railway said.
The work involved assembling, laying and dismantling of turnouts, erection of Over Head Equipment (OHE) portals including erection of two special portals of 53 meters covering all 10 lines which is the first time on Indian Railways. In addition to lengthening of platforms, wiring of points, signals, DC Track circuits and other technical works were also carried out.
The work was accomplished with the help of 250 highly skilled and technically competent staff and an equally efficient team of senior officers and supervisors.
The challenge was much bigger at Thane station for widening of platform no. 5/6 and a block of 63 hrs had to be taken from 00:30 hrs ofn May 31. These are one of the busiest platforms handling more than 300 suburban as well as mail/express trains, the release said.
Widening by 2-3 meters for the entire length of 587 meters was done by placement of 785 pre-cast hollow blocks of 1x1x1 meters, 0.5x1x1 meters and 1.5x1x1 meters. These pre-cast blocks reduce the chances of platform surface settlement.
This is for the first time such types of blocks were used for platform construction. The work involved use of two concrete pumps, fve Poclains, one Roller, one ballast train, 32 tank wagons and four locomotives. One footover bridge was also dismantled and a new one was constructed a few days earlier to make space for the work of widening of platforms.
The task at Thane was completed by a team of senior officers and supervisors that included 15 senior section engineers heading each team while 20 teams of around 400 labourers of 10 different contractors worked round-the-clock to complete the task within the targeted time.
In order to ensure safe and smooth working during the block, 930 suburban trains were cancelled. In addition some mail/exp trains were also cancelled while some were short terminated / short originated at/from Dadar, Panvel, Nashik, Manmad and Pune stations.
Help desks manned by commercial staff and aided by RPF and station staff were set up at various stations to provide assistance to passengers. Besides continuous announcements regarding cancellation, short origination/ termination of mail/exp trains and information on suburban trains were made.
BEST undertaking ran 486 additional buses to mitigate the crowd during block while additional force of RPF personnel and TCs were deployed to ensure proper communication with the commuters.
